• Journal of Information Technology and Architecture
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.287-301
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• 2012

Against Nonaka's seminal work in 1999, this study aims to investigate various influencing factors on knowledge-transfer channels of Korean academics. To do this, we surveyed 20,000 Korean academics in science and engineering with regard to factors involved in their formal and informal collaborative activities with firms. In particular, we focus on the individual characteristics of the academics when the channels are changed from informal channels (e.g. consulting) to formal channels (e.g. licensing), as the codification of knowledge is important when it is spilled over. According to the results, male academics with a longer career and in the field of applied disciplines in a big laboratories are likely to join the transformation of the channels. Interestingly, application capacity as measured by the number of patent application is significantly and positively related to the participation of formal channels. In contrast, scientific capacity as measured by the number of papers is significantly and negatively, or in some case weakly, related to the participation. Finally, based on the findings, some policy implications are put forwarded.